This Bizarre Hotel Room With No Walls or Doors Is Going for $340 a Night

You would think that a private place to sleep is an integral—if not the most important—element of a hotel, no matter if you’re staying at a luxury resort or a budget motel. But a Swiss art duo are challenging this very idea with a new installation that promises a restless night filled with traffic, noise, and the sweet aroma of gasoline wafting over you. 

Brothers and conceptual artists Frank and Patrik Riklin, who partnered with hotelier Daniel Charbonnier to create this hotel “room,” are perfectly aware that you won’t be sleeping peacefully in their newest hospitality experience—but that is exactly the point. “In view of the current world situation, there is no time to sleep,” the brothers said in a statement. The open-air suite—which is located between a gas station and busy intersection and purposefully lacks a door, ceiling, or walls—is designed to keep you up so you have time to contemplate current social, economic, and environmental issues.

This room is another iteration of the founders’ “zero real estate suites,” which they launched back in 2008 as part of their Null Stern Hotel. The first three suites, which include a queen bed on a platform and two nightstands, all make use of the Swiss Alps and breathtaking Saillon landscape to create picturesque overnight stays in a glamping-like experience. Currently, there are over 6,000 guests on the waitlist eager for the opportunity to spend an evening at the non-traditional hotel. 

However, this most recent room takes a completely different approach: an anti-idyllic suite, which the team describes as the “antithesis of the race to the ideal.” Located in Valais, Switzerland, the installation is both fascinating and disturbing, probing guests to consider the origins and consequences of beauty, comfort, and safety. “It was important for us to show both the idyllic aspects of our world and its stunning landscapes, but also the realities we all face today,” Charbonnier said.